- A-Z
- Endocytobiosis and ...
- Volume 2
- Issue 1
- Cytochemical studie...
- Autor(in)
- Seitenbereich
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083 - 090
- Zusammenfsg.
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The existence of basic protein in the kinetoplast of cultured promastigote of Leishmania gerbilli was shown by five techniques. In the material fixed by neutral formalin or ethanol with acetic acid and stained by ethanolic phosphotungstic acid, basic protein was demonstrated only at the periphery of the kinetoplast, while the interior part of the organelle was unstained. But in the glutaraldehyde-fixed and ethanolic phosphotungstic acid-stained cells, the basic protein staining exhibits two extremes as well as a series of intermediate transitions. At one extreme, basic protein was also located only at the periphery of the kinetoplast. At another extreme, especially in the cases that the fixation was prolonged to several day, a lot of cross cords were stained and the whole kinetoplast strongly resembled the kinetoplast in the routine double-fixed and double-stained cells. The peripheral staining must be an artifact created by phosphotungstic acid molecules that are too big to penetrate into the interior of the kinetoplast. The kinetoplast of Leishmania gerbilli was found to be a long annular structure. So, even if DNA had been removed before staining, there still existed an unstainable space in the kinetoplast.